“We can learn so much not just from letters and correspondence but just from talking to family and keeping the stories alive.”Series director Sam Pearson interviews Ancestry's resident genealogist Simon Pearce. An expert in First and Second Wor

Extra: Memories of Cyril and Olga

Aug 25th, 2020 10m 2s

“He was doing 100 press-ups every morning.”The Mowforth family share some of their fond memories of Cyril and Olga.Leave a review to Letters of Love in WW2 on your favourite podcast app or get in touch on social media using #LettersOfLoveInWW2.

Extra: The importance of the letters to the family

Aug 18th, 2020 9m 28s

"It's massively important, historically, to find these letters. It's going to be one of the last eras where that's going to happen."The Mowforth family share their thoughts on what finding Cyril and Olga's correspondence means to them and the i

Extra: The family on Cyril and Olga's wartime experiences

May 7th, 2020 7m 41s

"I really wish, like so many people, that you could have had an extra hour or two to ask these things of your parents."Cyril and Olga's letters give a remarkable insight into the personal experiences of those that lived through the war - both o

8. VE Day: Grief and Relief

Jul 25th, 2019 36m 14s

As Germany officially surrenders, Cyril and Olga find hope once again in the fact that their love has survived so many years apart. They will go one to start the family they always dreamed of, with neither of them ever forgetting, and barely sp

7. Bergen-Belsen: Sorrow and Shock

Jul 18th, 2019 51m 24s

As Olga gets a taste of Germany’s ‘Flying Bombs’ in Sheffield, Cyril knows the end of the war is coming as he drives the lead tank of his unit through Germany. As the couple reaches the five year point in their separation, Cyril’s unit becomes

6. Germany: On the Approach

Jul 11th, 2019 40m 18s

Cyril joins the British Liberation Army as a Corporal, beginning the trek from Normandy across Belgium and Holland en route to Germany. The pace of his unit means that his letters become less frequent as he moves from “C” Squadron, 42nd Royal T

5. D-Day: Visitations

Jul 4th, 2019 37m 27s

As troops prepare for the invasion of Normandy, Cyril is suddenly sent back to British soil to retrieve a new, heavier, tank, surprising Olga for a short time. Based at the Catterick Army Camp, Olga gets a shock to have learnt that he had been

4. El Alamein: Silence and Roses

Jun 27th, 2019 47m 34s

Frustrations are high for Cyril who suffers periods of illness and depression triggered by long periods of idleness. As the couple cross the eighteen-month mark of their separation, the sense of helplessness is forever on the surface.Leave a re

3. Siege of Tobruk: Battlefields and Reality

Jun 20th, 2019 34m 6s

The realities of war hit when, after a long gap in correspondence, Cyril reveals in one long letter that he has been involved in the siege of Tobruk. In England, Olga is aware there is heavy battle going on and has hopes Cyril is safe.Leave a r

2. North Africa: Lost Messages

Jun 13th, 2019 33m 38s

Cyril and Olga face months of agonising delays in their letters to one another, and they get a taste of the frustrations to come. Olga, facing air raids at home in Sheffield, settles into her role in the Civil Defence emergency services.Leave a

1. At Sea: Optimistic Goodbyes

Jun 6th, 2019 28m 59s

When Sue Mowforth found a bundle of letters written by her belated parents, she was about to uncover the love story that made her family who they are today. In 1940, just three months after they wed, Cyril and Olga were forced apart by WW2. Uns

Trailer

The history of the Second World War told through one couple's letters

May 23rd, 2019 1m 50s

This is the history of WW2 told in way you've never heard it before: through the letters of a real-life couple who lived through it and the interviews with their family who found their correspondence many years later.Leave a review to Letters o